Fathers’ group sues to stop new child support rules

A nonprofit organization opposing revisions to the Massachusetts child support guidelines that took effect on Jan. 1 appeared before U.S. District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock in Boston this morning to ask for a halt to their implementation.

Fathers & Families, a Boston-based group that advocates for “children’s right to the love and care of both parents after separation or divorce,” filed suit against Chief Justice for Administration and Management Robert A. Mulligan and other trial court judges on Dec. 23. That same day, the group filed a request for a preliminary injunction in hopes of preventing judges in Massachusetts from applying the new guidelines to cases involving child support after Jan. 1, 2009.

Ned Holstein, executive director of Fathers & Families, served on the 12-member task force convened by Mulligan in 2006 to rework the guidelines. He told Lawyers Weekly in an interview for a story last November about the new guidelines that he tried in vain to convince the task force that the revisions would prove too expensive for many non-custodial parents. When the task force unveiled the new guidelines in November, Holstein wrote a dissenting report that characterized them as flawed and unfair.

In its lawsuit, Fathers & Families argues that Mulligan and the Trial Court violated the federal equal protection clause by implementing discriminatory rules, the federal due process clause by passing a law by “judicial fiat,” and the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights by passing a law without the participation of the other two branches of state government.

The group also argues that the new guidelines are “arbitrary and capricious” where the Trial Court did not consider, as statutorily required, any “data on the cost of raising children.”

In a press release issued by the group, Holstein is quoted as saying that “the new guidelines will create a ‘castle versus a hovel’ situation for kids” and that the lawsuit is a way of saying, “Let’s pause and reconsider the wisdom of these controversial changes at this moment.”

The group’s attorney, Gregory Hession of Springfield, argued for the preliminary injunction at 10 a.m. today. Click here to read the group’s complaint and here to read its memorandum of law.

8 comments

Hey Fathers & Family, we welfare queens will be over tomorrow to drop off your 2 kids and we can switch roles a little while and then see how you feel about the Child Support Guidelines ok. And while you have the kids, I will pay you $41.00 a week in court ordered child support as you are ordered to pay me now.

You can use that $41.00 to pay for their medical insurance coverage, any additional co-pays for doctor’s vists that insurance don’t cover, their prescriptions, the food they eat, the clothes on their backs, the phone bill so they can talk to me on the phone, the extra activites that they have at school, new school clothes for school, the gas in the tank to run them back and forth to school and any other place they need to go, $10,000 for braces for both of them. Those payments for one is $193.00/mo.

Let me know if there are any Fathers out there they want to try this experiment ok.

Ronda explain to me how it is fair for a father’s second family to not be calculated into the child support equation? Why should those children not count? Many fathers would love to do that experiment but unfortunately the court does not favor fathers and they are denied custody.

Are you really only receiving $2,132 per year in child support for 2 children? If that is the case I feel for you and you need to get that increased substantially somehow. Without boring you with my situation, I pay much much more than that as do most dads. The point of this crusade is not to get out of paying child support. We just want the laws to be fair. Fathers lose custody of their children by default in divorce cases and are forced to pay an outrageous amount in child support on top of everything else. As Christine points out, I would LOVE to have custody of my 2 young children. I am better suited to raise them, emotionally and finacially but the courts wouldn’t allow it and my ex won’t agree to it. I asked her. Why would she be so willing to give up such a large financial stipend?

I FEEL FOR SOME OF YOU WOMEN BUT MY GRIPE IS NO ON SHOULD HAVE TO PAY FOR AN ADULT WHO ANLY GOES TO SCHOOL PART TIME AND WORKS .WE HAVE TO PAY FOR A 21 YEAR OLD TELL SHES23 PLEASE…. WERE BOTH 60 AND GONNA LOOSE OUR HOME THIS ISNT FAIR WE HAVE NO RETIREMENT NOTHING. WE PAY THE TAXES ON THAT MONEY THE X GETS THE TAX BREAKS. I PERSONALY CANT PICTURE MYSELF LIVING ON THE STREETAT 60. MASS AND HAWAYII ARE THE ONLY STATES THAT DO THIS.

i pay 325 a week for two adults. My daughter has been attending a two year college for five years..go figure,,my son graduated with an ass. degree in januaury and im still paying,,wheres the balance in that situation?

Hi Ronda, i’m a single father for 17 years now, never got a cent in child support from the mother. I now have a fine young man of 20 that i am proud to call my son. I would do it all over again. Give me my kids any day.

How about this? I lost my job of 15 years.
My Daughter 19 in college full scholarship (she’s awesome). Have custody of a 12 year old son from marriage 2. Single Dad on unemployment. A year after my daughter turned 18 and support has ended.. mother seeks additional support. Of course she gets it.
RETROACTIVE A YEAR!OVER 10G’s! Even though I am not working Judge kept the amount of previous support order in effect.

You need to file and unconstitutional suit against the judge. It was successful in Pennsylvania, and now they only have to pay if they want to help. I do not owe my kids a college education, thats not to say I wouldn’t if I could afford it. Married couples are not held to this. The judge needs to be charged with treason. Show him a copy of his oath of office. I am personally about 14000$ in the rears. I lost my job last year as an over the road truck driver due to the cost of fuel. I work in the oil fields now, but the work there is up and down, nothing consistant. I,m 54 yrs of age. My ex-wife had an affair and both her and new husband have serious substance abuse problems. I have warned the courts of all their doings, I have been labled a diguntled ex-husband yet their is documented proof of child neglect and endangerment. I now live in Texas and my son spends the summers with me. He would rather live here because of the mental anguish where he resides now. He will be 13 this June 25th. I cannot afford an attorney, so I am going to have to deal with this myself. Its better than doing nothing at all. I just want a non-bias judge to hear his side of the story. Indiana is in it for the money, not the best interest of the child. Government has no rights in family affairs. Family court should be open to the public. The reason it isn’t is not because of the welfare of the child, but the welfare of the state. If court watchers were allowed in court, this mess would never had happened. The fix is in the judges oath of office, not to mention trial by jury. Anything over 20.00. Let a jury decide where a child belongs, not a judge. There is too much room for conflict of interest.I can go on forever on this subject.I have taken up way too much space. Just keep up your fights and join parental rights groups, and get involved with the local elections and lets get these bias officials out of government. Don’t forget, a jury has the right to declare any law unconstitutional under jury nulification. Look it up under blacks book of law terms. “God Bless all who are trying to regain the children. They belong to the parents, not the state. Richard Cole, a disgruntled father.